Jake is a musical badass. I also like the one of him playing in Hawaii, While My Guitar Gently Weeps. There's quite a bit of background hiss in this one, probably due to being recorded outside, but his playing is phenomenal.

A mention the other day in another thread of the influence of classical music in film scores reminded me of Bernard Herrmann's eerie/beautiful music that added so much to the original 1951 The Day The Earth Stood Still. I've mentioned this in passing a couple times in the past, but it certainly belongs in Mojo's Stunning Recordings thread.

This is the original 1951 score, but re-recorded in high class sound that will give audio systems, especially subs, a good workout. As with so many film scores, arguably better than the films themselves, and fully able to stand on its own and supply enjoyable listening. Available for about $12 plus shipping from various Amazon sellers .

Anyone have any good new recommendations for female vocal-based HQ recordings?

I pulled an Allison Krauss and Robert Plant disc down from HDTracks and also found a Diana Krall Christmas disc that is just phenomenal quality. Would love some non-seasonal equivalents.

My sister recommended Ingrid Michaelson, but I was saddened to find out that despite her great voice, the recording quality was crap. What a letdown. Right now outside of the two listed above and a couple of Norah Jones albums, I am seriously lacking in quality female vocals. I have even less of that than I have jazz.

If you like Celtic sounds, anything by Loreena McKennitt. She owns her own recording studio and does a great job of producing her own unforgettable voice.

I'll call it World Music. Someone here introduced me to Pink Martini. I can't recall which CD I have but it catches my ear for stunning quality and another unique female voice every time it comes up on my random setting.

Holly Cole Trio - Don't Smoke in Bed is another that catches my ear, so to speak, and Ella Fitzgerald is another name I recall seeing mentioned a few times here as well but I do not own anything by here so can't recall the exact CD.

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With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.

Murph, a little background on LM's own recording studio...when she started out, a major record company heard some of her music and wanted to sign her up so they sent her a rather large cheque and asked her to record some tracks for them. She and her group proceded to record a number of songs for the record label to demo and after listening to them they contacted her and asked her to change this, modify that ect....she sent the cheque back to them and said she wasn't interested. Class.

She also had a #1 album on some New Age chart, don't know if it was Billboard or other, but she called them and asked them to kindly remove it since she doesn't play "New Age".

Aside from enjoying her music, I appreciate her ethics which seem rare in the industry.

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Half of communication is listening. You can't listen with your mouth.